Khodorkovsky arrives in Germany hours after release from prison

Ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has landed in Berlin, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman has said in a statement. Khodorkovsky has been freed from jail after a decade of imprisonment as President Vladimir Putin granted him a pardon.

Former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher has
confirmed that Khodorkovsky arrived on a private jet to Berlin
and that he personally picked him up at the airport.

According to German DPA news agency, Genscher asked the German
company OBO Betterman to provide an airplane.

The purpose of Khodorkovsky’s trip to Berlin remains unclear.

The Federal Penitentiary Service said he had flown to Germany,
where it said his mother is undergoing medical treatment.

However, Marina Khodorkovskaya, 80, denied that she is in Germany
in an exclusive comment to RT.

“No, I am in Moscow,” Khodorkovsky's mother said, but
added that she and family members were “ready to leave, but
haven’t decided yet what to do.” When asked if she has
talked to her son, she said: “No, I can’t talk to him – he
has no phone.” She said that she does not have any new
information besides what she “hears from radio
[reports].”Reports on Khodorkovsky’s departure to Germany appeared
hours after he left the prison.

According to the Federal Penitentiary Service’s statement earlier
in the day, Khodorkovsky had filed a request to issue him travel
documents.

“As he was being released, Khodorkovsky requested that he be
issued the documents required to travel abroad. After the
release, he took a flight to the Federal Republic of
Germany,” the service’s press service said.

The prison service did not provide details of the flight that it
said took Khodorkovsky out of Russia. But an RT source at a local
airport cited aviation chatter as saying that Khodorkovsky had
flown out of the town of Segezha, where his prison is located, in
a helicopter.

On Friday afternoon, Khodorkovsky was released from a prison in
the Karelia region, nearly 1,000 kilometers north of Moscow,
hours after a presidential pardon was signed. The degree cited
humanitarian concerns as the reason for releasing the businessman
after a decade of imprisonment.

Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in Russia, was arrested in
2003 and charged with tax evasion and fraud. In 2010 he was
prosecuted and found guilty of money laundering. He was due for
release in August 2014 after two separate Russian courts reduced
his sentence.

Germany’s government has issued a statement saying that
Chancellor Angela Merkel has welcomed Khodorkovsky’s release.

Former FM Genscher described the move as "significant and
very encouraging".

The statement issued by Genscher's spokesperson revealed the
joint efforts of both the former FM and Chancellor Angela Merkel
aimed at securing the release of Khodorkovsky.

Genscher had met Putin in person twice to talk about Khodorkovsky
and Markel “has repeatedly lobbied the Russian president for
Mr Khodorkovsky's release" over the last few years, the
official statement said.